Interaction of spiral waves and checkerboard patterns in a two-dimensionalcoupled circle-map lattice system

The interaction of multiple patterns has been of considerable interest in r ecent years. In this paper, we introduce a simple model system with a two-d imensional array of coupled phase oscillators that is effective in studying various features of spiral wave dynamics in discrete systems. We briefly d escribe spiral characteristic behaviors of spiral waves in our system and f ocus on the interaction between a spiral wave and the checkerboard pattern. We find that the interaction of these patterns results ill a spiral unwind ing; spiral waves start to unwind from the boundary region where phases can easily lock to checkerboard patterns. We also describe the dynamic evoluti on when the spiral unwinding is accompanied by spontaneous disintegration o f tile spiral waves.